Carton construction



July 9, 1968 c. H. BESSETT 3,391,845

CARTON CON STRUCTION Filed Sept. 6, 1967 2 SheetsSheet 1 INVENTOR. CL IFFORD H. BESSETT BY PE/VDLE T OMNEUMA/V .SE/BOLD 8 WILL/4M5 ATTORNEYS July 9, 1968 c. H. BESSETT 3,391,845

CARTON CON STRUCT ION Fig. 5

INVENTOR.

CLIFFORD HBESSE'TT BY PENDL E TO/V, NE UMA/V SE/BOLD 8 WILLIAMS .4 TTOR/VEYS United States Patent 3,391,845 CARTON CONSTRUCTION Clitford H. Bessett, South Holland, Iil., assignor to Packaging Corporation of America, Evanston, 111., a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 6, 1967, Ser. No. 665,842 9 Claims. (Cl. 229-25) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a carton (e.g. egg carton) and more particularly to a lock therefor for retaining the cover section of the carton in a closed position with respect to the bottom section thereof. The lock is integrally formed on the carton and upon the application of a predetermined external force to certain lock components, the latter will resiliently flex to either a locked or unlocked position depending upon the direction of the applied force.

Background of the invention Various cartons, such as egg cartons, have heretofore been devised which because of various design characteristics are possessed of one or more of the following shortcomings: (a) the lock is incapable of repeated use; (b) the overall stability of the carton is impaired by reason of the inclusion of the lock; (c) the lock is ineffective when the carton is only partially loaded; (d) opening and closing of the lock is an awkward manipulation oftentimes causing damage to the contents of the carton; (e) locking of the carton is not readily accomplished by mechanical means; (f) the component parts of the lock interfere with the normal disposition of the contents within the carton; and (g) when the lock is in locked position various component parts thereof project outwardly from the cation exterior and either render the lock susceptible to being accidentally engaged during normal handling and thus cause the carton to open unexpectedly or interfere with the packing of a plurality of loaded cartons in a container for either storage or shipment.

Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a carton which is not beset with any of the aforenoted shortcomings.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a carton which is of unitary structure and may be readily molded.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a carton which is readily capable of either mechanical or manual closing.

Further and additional objects will appear from the description, accompanying drawings, and appended claims.

Summary of the invention In accordance with one embodiment of this invention a carton is provided which comprises a bottom section having a front wall, a cover section provided with a front wall and adapted to overlie the bottom section, and a flange connected to one of the front walls and adapted to engage the concealed surface of the other front wall, when the cover section is in overlying relation with the bottom section. A lock is provided for retaining the cover section in said overlying relation. The lock includes a yieldable male element mounted on the said other front wall and a female element positioned on said flange and adapted to be in registered relation with said male element. The male element is movable into interlocking inwardly projecting relation with the female element only when said cover section is in said overlying relation with said bottom section and a predetermined force has been exerted on the male element.

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For a more complete understanding of the invention reference is made to the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of one form of the improved carton shown in its fully opened condition;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the carton of FIG. 1 with the cover section thereof in an overlying closed position with respect to the bottom section and showing the right hand lock in a locked position and the left hand lock in an unlocked position;

FIG. 3 is a right end elevational view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a right end elevational view of FIG. 2 and the manner of manually effecting locking and unlocking of the lock is shown in a fragmentary form; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary enlarged top plan view of the carton of FIG. 2 and with a portion of the cover section and flange removed so as to show the location of the male element, when in a locking position, in full lines and in an unlocking position in dotted lines.

Description Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 one form of the improved carton 10, namely a molded pulp 2 X 6 egg carton, is shown. It is to be understood of course that the invention is not to be limited to the illustrated carton but may take various other forms; however, for purposes of facilitating understanding of the invention, it will hereinafter be described with respect to the illustrated embodiment. Carton 10 is provided with a cellular bottom or tray section 11 which has a plurality of egg-accommodating pockets or cells 12 which are arranged in two parallel rows of six cells each. The rows of cells are separated by a plurality of upstanding posts 13. The posts in the illustrated embodiment extend to approximately the plane defined by the peripheral rim 14 which delimits the upper open side of the bottom section 11, see FIG. 3.

Hingedly connected to the upper edge of the front wall 11a of section 11 is a flange 15. When the carton is closed, as shown in FIG. 2, the flange is adapted to be disposed in an upright position between the depending front wall 16a of the cover section 16 and the eggs E disposed in the front row of cells as shown in FIG. 5. The flange in such position engages the concealed surface of the front wall 16a, see FIG. 4.

The cover section 16 is substantially non-cellular in form and has the back wall 16b thereof hingedly connected to the upper edge of the back wall 11b of the bottom section 11. The hinge axes of both the cover section 16 and the flange 15 are disposed in parallel relation. The lower side of the cover section 16 is substantially delimited by a peripheral rim 17, which engages the tray section rim 14 when the cover section is closed as in FIG. 2. It will be noted in FIG. 2 that the rim 17 in the front side of the cover section 16 is recessed slightly at 17a in order to accommodate the hinged portion 15a of flange 15 and thus permit the cover section to assume a fully closed position.

In the illustrated cover section 16, FIG. 3, there is provided a centrally disposed depending post 16c which is adapted to engage the upper end of one of the tray section posts 13, when the cover section assumes its closed position. Thus, the load-bearing characteristics of the carton are markedly improved.

One or more locks 18 are provided at the front of the carton and each includes a male element or component 20, which is mounted on the cover section front wall 16a and a female element or component 21 formed on the flange 15. The male element in the illustrated embodiment comprises two pairs of complemental members 22a and b. The members of each pair have inner perhipheral segments thereof foldably interconnected at 23. The connection 23 is of such form that it will enable the members 22a and b to pivot relative to one another so as to project inwardly as seen in full lines in FIG. 5 or outwardly as seen in dotted lines in FIG. 5. The outer peripheral segments of members 22a and b are hingedly connected at 24 to adjacent portions of the cover section front wall 16a. The upper and lower peripheral segments of members 220 and b are not connected to the front wall 16a. Each member 22a and b are of like configuration and capable of resilient flexure or bowing toward one another when external force of a predetermined magnitude is exerted on the connection 23 in the directions A and B as shown in FIG. 4. Direction A efi'ects locking of the lock and direction B effects unlocking. Because of the inherent resiliency of members 22a and b, the male element will snap to either its lock or unlock position and remain in said position until the predetermined force is applied in the opposite direction.

The female element 21 is shown in the form of an opening, one for each pair of complemental members 22a and b. A segment 25a of the opening extends into the tray section 11, see FIG. 1, and thus enables the end of a finger F to be inserted therethrough, see FIG. 4, to effect unlocking of the look. A second segment 25b of the opening extends into the flange and is adapted to interlockingly accommodate the hinged portion 23 of members 22a and b when they project inwardly as seen in FIG. 5. Thus, by reason of the complemental members 22a and b remaining in their locked or unlocked positions, once moved to such positions, the cover section even with double locks may be readily manually unlocked by successive manipulation of each look by one hand of the operator or housewife and thereby leave the other hand free to perform other functions; such as holding packages, dishes, eggs, or the like.

Because the cover section front wall 16a, to which the members 2212 and b are hingedly connected, is inclined rearwardly a slight amount, the members when moved inwardly to their locked position, project downwardly slightly, as seen in FIG. 4. It will be observed in FIG. 5 that the male element, when in a locking position with the flange opening 25b, is disposed within a vertical plane which extends transversely of the rows of cells and between adjacent cells in a row and thus in no way interferes with the eggs accommodated in said cells.

While the improved carton has been described and illustrated as a molded pulp carton it may however be readily formed by thermoforming and/ or injection molding as well, and the material utilized may be such as expanded polystyrene, polyethylene, or the like. In addition the carton may be formed of paperboard and have a configuration which is substantially different from that illustrated or the cover section may be separate from the tray section and have locks provided on the front and back walls thereof and with complemental flanges mounted on the front and back walls of the tray section.

Thus, it will be seen that an improved carton and lock has been provided which may be readily locked by either manual or mechanical means, is capable of repeated use without adversely affecting the carton or its contents, and when the lock is in the locked position has no ouwardly projecing part which would interfere with the packing of numerous loaded cartons in a container for either storage or shipment.

The claims herein submitted are intended to cover the illustrated embodiment as well as the modifications previously discussed.

I claim:

1. A carton comprising a bottom section provided with a front wall, a cover section provided with a front wall, said cover section being movable into overlying relation with respect to said bottom section, a flange carried by one of said front walls and positionable in face to face contact with the concealed surface of the other front wall when said cover section is in said overlying relation, and a lock for releasably retaining said cover section in overlying relation with said bottom section; saidlock including a yieldable male element mounted on said other front wall, and a female element positioned on said flange and in registration with said male element when said cover section overlies said bottom section; said male element including a pair of foldably connected complemental members, said members being hingedly connected to spaced portions on said other front wall, said complemental members, upon a predetermined external force being exerted thereupon, flex and pass between the spaced portions of said other front wall and resiliently project either outwardly or inwardly of said other front wall depending upon the direction of the exerted force and remain in said selected projected position; said complemental members, only when projecting inwardly, interlockingly engaging said female element.

2. The carton of claim 1 wherein said lock male element is mounted on said cover section front Wall, and said flange is hinged to said bottom section front wall.

3. The carton of claim 2 wherein the complemental members of said male element are integral with said cover section front wall, and said female element comprises an opening formed in said flange.

4. The carton of claim 2 wherein said carton is in the form of an egg carton and said bottom section comprises a plurality of egg-accommodating cells; said cover and bottom sections having rear walls hingedly connected to one another.

5. The carton of claim 4 wherein said carton is of unitary molded construction.

6. The carton of claim 5 wherein a pair of relatively spaced male elements are mounted on said cover section front wall and a pair of relatively spaced female elements are mounted on said flange.

7. The carton of claim 3 wherein the female element opening has a portion thereof extending into said bottom section.

8. The carton of claim 4 wherein the egg-accommodating cells are arranged in spaced relation and form a row which is substantially parallel to said bottom section front wall; said lock male and female elements being aligned with a space between adjacent cells in a row.

9. The carton of claim 8 wherein said egg-accommodating cells are arranged in a plurality of parallel rows and a plurality of upstanding posts are provided which separate the rows from one another, and said cover section is provided with a depending post which engages an upstanding post when said cover section is in said overlying relation with said bottom section.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,978,162 4/1961 Lambert 229-25 3,184,133 5/1965 Boyd et al. 2292.5 3,285,491 11/1966 Bessett 229- DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Primary Examiner. 

